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Sunday, February 02, 2014

I've almost given up blogging, since I'm now in China, which seems to
have an inexplicable grudge against amiable American web sites, that one
included. But I did happen to notice that Randall Rauser and
Tom Gilson have both been posting on Peter Boghossian, the veritable
reincarnation of Socrates in Gnu form, lately. Readers may have seen my
account here of what happened when I challenged Peter to debate long
before his book came out, "Peter Boghossian sees through me."
Apparently he's seen through these other guys, too! He has apparently
refused to debate either of them publicly, Rauser on the Unforgettable
show that I have also appeared on in the past, on the grounds that he is
not a real scholar, or something.

Good on Peter. Those of us
whose vision has lessened as we grow older, can only feel profound
respect for those who gain such powers as the ability to see thoughts
over thousands of miles through inches of thick (and in my case,
thickening) cranial tissue, and discern the true quality of scholarship
they have never read, from otherwise apparently respectable
institutions. (I would be satisfied with a much lesser superpower, like
reading two books at the same time with two different eyes.)

Which
brings us to Randal's recent post, which made unfortunate light of the
esteemed sage (I mean the contemporary one) by comparing him to comic
book knights. I have to say, I think that's all wrong, unnecessary, and
even rather mean of our friend Randal. The real comparison is to a
Jedi Knight. Like the Jedi, Dr. Boghossian knows that he understands
Christianity most clearly with a blindfold over his eyes. This is one
of those cases in which perception of the evidence, say by physically
reading what Christians say about faith, for instance, would merely
distract someone with Jedi powers from what he knows, with unassailable
certainty, from serendipitous truth internally mediated, about that
pernicious superstition.

And this is, let me add, a great
advantage that Gnu scholars like Boghossian hold over primitive sages
like Socrates. Socrates seemed, poor fellow, to ask people questions
because he wanted to know the answers, because he recognized his own
ignorance and sought to ameliorate it. That is hardly any better than
asking the way to the train station because you are lost! Whereas
Boghossian asks questions because he knows the vast majority of humanity
consists of deluded fools, and he seeks to enlighten them about their
foolishness, and offer the Good News that God does not love them, after
all. To me, that is the position a true sage must take. And here lies
the difference between Randal or I or our readers and a real scholar,
like Peter Boghossian: you had to read this post to find out what I
think, whereas Dr. Boghossian knows already, without opening his
computer, that the likes of you and I hardly engage in anything that can
be called "thought" at all. I have no idea what Justin was thinking,
inviting Rauser on with the likes of Peter Boghossian. Of course, I'm
sure Peter knows.